Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac

A dark social novel set in 19th-century Paris, following Bette, whose jealousy and resentment draw aristocrats, artists, and financiers into her schemes. Ambition, betrayal, obsession, desire, and revenge expose the fragility of family bonds and a society caught between old traditions and modern corruption.

Publication Year: 1965 (Penguin Classics edition)
Publisher: Penguin Books
Language: English
Original Language: French
Translator: Marion Ayton Crawford
Intended Age: Adult